Family 4. LINACEAE 



By John Kunkei, Small 



Herbs or shrubs with branching stems. Leaves alternate, or rarely oppo- 

 site or whorled, without stipules, or often with stipular glands or rarely with 

 narrow free stipules ; blades narrow and entire or with gland-tipped teeth, or 

 broad and entire or inconspicuously toothed. Flowers perfect, regular and 

 usually symmetrical, axillary to bracts which are similar to the upper leaves 

 but smaller, borne in racemes or in panicled or corymbose cymes. Calyx of 

 5, or rarely of 4-6, entire or glandular-margined sepals. Corolla of 5, or 

 rarely of 4-6, white or various-colored usually ephemeral petals. Androecium 

 of as many stamens as there are sepals, the filaments united at the base and 

 sometimes bearing entire or 2-lobed staminodia in the sinuses ; anthers 2-celled, 

 versatile. Gynoecium 5-carpellary or sometimes 2- or 3-carpellary, the carpel- 

 bodies united, often with complete or incomplete partitions ; styles distinct or 

 partially united ; stigmas terminal or introrse. Ovules 1 or 2 in each carpel. 

 Fruit a capsule which usually separates into twice as many parts as there are 

 carpels. Seeds flat or turgid, oily. 



Herbs or partially woody plants with longitudinally veined narrow_ leaf- 

 blades; stipules wanting or mere glands ; stigmas not reniform. 

 Petals unappeudaged and not lobed at the base. 



Stigmas introrse and more or less elongate ; sepals glandless. 1. Ljnum. 



Stigmas terminal and capitate ; sepals, at least the inner ones, with 

 marginal glands. 2. Cathartolinum. 



Petals with 1-3 ventral appendages, and small lateral lobes at the base. 3. Hesperolinon. 

 Shrubs with pinuately veined broad leaf-blades ; stipules narrow, often 



bristle-like, free; stigmas reniform. 4. Reinwardtia. 



1. LINUM L. Sp. PI. 277. 1753. 



Adenolinum Reichenb. Handb. 306. 1837. 



Annual or perennial glabrous herbs, sometimes partially woody at the base. Leaves 

 alternate, without stipules or stipular glands; blades narrow, entire. Sepals 5, smooth and 

 glabrous, except the ciliate margins of the inner, and rarely also of the outer ones of some 

 species, persistent. Petals 5, blue or red, or rarely white, unappendaged, and entire at 

 the base. Stamens 5 ; filaments dilated and united at the base, each sinus with a short 

 staminodium. Gynoecium 5-carpellary, not cartilaginous at the base ; styles 5, elongate, 

 distinct or united ; stigmas longer than thick, sometimes markedly elongate, introrse. Cap- 

 sule 5-celled the carpels with incomplete false septa, each one longitudinally ridged and 

 grooved on the back. Seeds flat, long-lenticular. 



Type species, Lintim usitatissimum L. 



Sepals, sometimes only the inner ones, ciliate : stigmas elongate ; annual 

 naturalized plants. 

 Styles distinct or nearly so ; inner sepals ciliate, the outer ones glabrous ; 

 petals blue. 

 Capsule slightly exceeding the calyx, tardily dehiscent, the septa not 



ciliate. 1. L. usitatissimum 



Capsules nearly twice as long as the calyx, readily dehiscent, the septa 



ciliate. 2. L. humile. 



Styles united ; inner and outer sepals ciliate ; petals red. 3. L. grandiflorum. 



Sepals not ciliate ; stigmas slightly longer than thick ; perennial native 

 plants. 

 Sepals over 5 mm. long at maUirity, over one half as long as the capsule. 4. L. Lewisii, 

 Sepals less than 5 mm. long at maturity, less than one half as long as the 

 capsule. 5. L.pratense. 



Volume 25, Part 1, 1907] 67 



